Letter to Mr. Dunlop

Dear Mr. William Dunlop,

I am writing you in response to the brutality you portrayed on the innocent victim, Sarah Baartman. After reading the harsh environment and treatment Baartman experienced because of you, I am doing all I can to prove that you are guilty of extortion and violence. You not only kidnapped and robbed Baartman of her home, but also her pride and dignity. I have never read a more appalling story, and it is with my gratitude to be representing Miss Baartman as a client and confidant.

You have used Baartman for your own wealth, while never giving her a penny after violating her publicly. Baartman has been seen as a circus freak and a spectacle for the body type she carries as a black woman. She was belittled and seen as an over sexual being because of her “unusually large buttocks and genitals” (Davie).

Backed by scholar, Ian F. Haney Lopez, we agree that your actions were based upon the discomfort you felt for the unknown. By coming into contact with something you were unfamiliar with, you claimed Baartman to be a freak, rather than acknowledging your unintelligence on such matters. Lopez and I agree that this was a way for you to oppress another race in order to raise your own. Lopez states, “The syncretic nature of racial, gender, and class constructs suggests that a global approach to oppression is not only desirable, it is necessary if the amelioration of these destructive social hierarchies is to be achieved” (Lopez, pp. 55).

Lopez has also gathered information from Court Justice White who claimed, “It has been found that differences between individuals of the same race are often greater than the differences between the ‘average’ individuals of different races…” (Lopez, pp. 53). Therefore, it is evident from these statements and findings that you are the one lacking critical information when exploiting another person.

Your use of Sarah Baartman as income and as experiment is going to come full circle when you are presented with experiments done that show the differences within individual races. The hope is also that the money you earned while using Baartman as a career will be paid to a campaign celebrating the ongoing triumphs of African women.

To enlighten you further, Dunlop, we as a people are more united in physiological aspects than you care to recognize. The individuals of a single culture vary in body shape, personality, and other characteristics. Yet, this is what makes a person uniquely individual, NOT a freak. You are also mistaken in your belief that you are of higher power than Miss Sarah Baartman. She, like you, is a human being. Her body shape may be of something you have never witnessed; she, also like you, may have been born a sexual being. These are qualities familiar with Homo sapiens.

It is highly advised that you try to enjoy the succeeding days, not by exploiting any other person(s). I give you this advice because it will be a miracle if you are not charged on any previous stated accounts, and hopefully with a plethora of others. With all of my power, I ensure you I will do my best so that you are viewed as the freak—not for your body shape, rather your disgusting sense of another’s worth.

Graciously,
Brittany L. Blevins
Attorney at Law

Works Cited:

Davie, L. Sarah Baartman, at rest at last. 12 August 2002.
Lopez, I. The social construction of race. 1994. pp. 52-56.